All bumps and bruises

As usual it has been another busy week in our household, Jay hurt his foot whilst training and in the early hours of Thursday morning was up A&E, parents evening and yesterday twin2lew burnt his hand and now has a lovely blister.

I still have 2 more lots of questions for the gardening journal and then I can transfer all the answers from the lovely Mum and Joanne into the journal. 

I have now gotten Dad on board to help me with the garden. We have had a brief chat and we decided to keep things simple. So it will be potatoes, dwarf green beans, runner beans, peas and courgettes and some tomatoes too and cut and come again salad leaves in tubs.

The Weather has been dry the past week so hopefully I will persuade someone to get the Rotavator out and get the ground all ready for planting the early potatoes. The raised bed also needs a severe weeding as it is full of stinging nettles which I shall use to make some nettle tea so it's not all bad.

Lets get on to the next lots of questions

41) Organic Gardening is becoming more prevalent...what views and advice would you give me?

42) Gardening can be expensive, so what money saving tips would you give me?

43) How do you manage a compost heap? what do you put in it and what do you keep out?

44) Companion planting is where some plants benefit from growing near each other...what have you observed?

45) How should I organise my plants and time in the greenhouse?

My response...

41) We are all more concerned about what goes into growing and producing our food hence why many of us now grow our own. I try to avoid any use of chemicals and use natural remedies for pest control, such as steeped rhubarb leaves to control numerous bugs, sunken beer cups to catch the snails as well as broken egg shells and also human hair around the base of your plants as another great deterrent to slugs and snails. 

42) Save all your food packaging containers as these are great for growing seedlings. Have a compost heap, use loo roll inners to sow peas & beans in. Make your own feeds and pest control. Buy good quality tools from boot sales, as the old ones are often the best, seed swaps.

43) I have 2 compost bins, I tend to put most food scraps in but avoid putting in onions & potatoes. 

44) This is not something I have really tried I did however plants marigolds all around my brassiccas to work as a barrier against slugs and snails but the blighter's still got to munch on my cabbages!

45) Again I have not had that much use out of my greenhouse so I can't really answer but I am looking forward to playing around in it this year.

So that is it from me for today, thank you all for joining me and I shall be back on Monday evening with the last of the journal quest. Until next time x

Plodding on with the quest!

Evening all, it has been one of those days with so much to do and everything taking more time than I thought it would and then end up doing less than I wanted, yes I know going round in circles once again! 

Jay has managed to empty out the summerhouse and filled all my other spaces and places! The greenhouse, the garage at home and the garage at work...

The planning for the rejuvenating of the vegetable garden is still ongoing.

Right as I said next lot of questions for the gardening journal. If you have just joined us please read previous posts which will reveal all to you.

21) What is your favourite gardening tool?

22) What is your favourite meal with using fresh produce from the garden?

23) What is your most memorable rhyme or quote about gardening?

24) If you could invite anyone past or present into your garden who would it be and why?

25) Describe what would be your perfect day in the garden

Oh dear looks like another hour sitting here...

21) It has to be my sieve as it brings back memories of being in the garden as a child as I used to love shaking the sieve and seeing the really fine soil fall from it. (sad I know)

22) Pea and bean risotto with lots of cheese and mint mmmmm

23) I can't think of one at the moment but will reply to this at a latter date.

24) I would like to invite both my grandfathers in so they can show and tell me more as it is not until we have grown and they have gone that we realise there was so much we were never going to have the chance to share.

25) A perfect day would be just digging, wedding and preparing the vegetable beds on a cold crisp spring or autumn day as it is something I can no longer do or enjoy.

Well there you have it, we are nearly half way through. Looking forward to seeing some of your answers.
Until next time x

day 4 - On with the quest...

Well there was no chasing rainbows today, only dreams...

There has been some great replies from mum and Jo (awholeplotoflove) and I am really enjoying this little quest, I hope you are too.

We are now on day 4, if you have only just joined us then look through the previous posts and you will soon catch up.

16) Tell me about your most memorable day in the garden

17) Animals are often attracted to gardens, tell me about some of your encounters

18) What are the greatest changes you have noticed in gardening throughout your life?

19) What changes in the climate has affected you plants or gardening and how have you noticed this?

20) Villages often run gardening competitions. Tell me about any you have experienced.

I have a headache just thinking about this lot of questions!

16) When I saw my first cauliflower head appear

17) We have had a fox which came right up to the patio doors to look in at 3am one morning when I was up doing coursework for uni. Frogs and toads which I loathe and of course hedgehogs.

18) More container gardening as gardens are gradually getting smaller and smaller and the preference for hard landscaping rather than flower beds and vegetable beds.

19) can't say I have really noticed anything as it has only been a few years where I have really got into gardening. However it all seems a lot wetter than when my granddad had his rows and rows or carrots and onions

20) When I was at Primary school we had a flower competition, at the time we never had any in our garden. So I did not have any however my friends mum had a beautiful flower garden and ran round and quickly cut me some flowers and gave them to me so I could also enter the competition. We both put our flowers in the jam jars and put our names on them and my bunch was picked as a runner up.

So that is it from me for today. I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow so you will have to wait for the next instalment. I hope you all have a great weekend whatever you may be doing, I think we have some nice weather for tomorrow, until next time x

Day 3 - On with the quest!

Hello everyone, yes I know I missed a day, I do apologise I had such a hectic day at the shop that once I got home I was too tired to even get the laptop out!

There has been the most amazing rainbows the last couple of days but I am always driving on my way home from work so I am unable to catch them on camera. As I sit here typing there are massive black clouds looming  so I might get to catch one on my camera as yet. 

Well we are now on to day three of the gardening quest, mum and a wholeplotoflove have given their answers for day two and they can be found on the previous post. 

So on to the next lots of questions

11) who would be your favourite gardener?

12) What are some of the most unusual plants you have grown?

13) What books, programmes or websites on gardening would you recommend?

14) What traditions do you follow when gardening?

15) Which season do you prefer and why?

I have sat here for a good 15 minutes or so contemplating the questions whilst slurping away on a nice hot cup of tea and think I am now ready to proceed...

11) I don't really have a favourite but I can remember Percy Thrower from my childhood of sitting at my grandparents house at lunchtime and we would have to sit and be quiet whilst it was on. However I have just sort of remembered someone who I did enjoy watching via podcasts on a gardening website which has since gone but I can only remember his first name and that was Terry, he was Welsh and the website was called gardeningclick so if anyone remembers this let me know.

12) Oh dear I am really boring as I haven't really grown anything unusual. 

13) Well there isn't any good gardening programmes unless you include the GoodLife! The Vegetable expert by Dr.D.GHessayon is one of the only gardening books I own and it has been like my guiding light when it has come to growing vegetables. And I prefer gardening forums than websites and other useful blogs.

14)Traditions hmmm...Well I do tend to grow the same things each year especially as you begin to know what will grow well and what doesn't and also I use the traditional varieties. 

15) late summer/Autumn is my favourite, you have harvested the main crops and you are busy making chutneys and jams. And I love it when the air is crisp and dry and all the leaves change colour and your cheeks are rosy from being out in the garden getting it ready for winter.

Now over to you, I didn't get to see another rainbow today but there is always tomorrow. 

Until next time x

Day 2 of our little gardening quest

Well Jay was on the ball yesterday, he managed to sort out my water butt which had a certain lean to it and was running down the outside wall of the house and low and behold he also cleared out the summerhouse, however he did have an ulterior motive as he and the boys are having it as a gym.

So I am offering FREE membership for the gym in exchange for completing all the odd jobs about the house and garden as they will never get done once the gym is up and running!

I had two lovely ladies join in with the quest yesterday, Thank you to Joanne from  a wholeplotoflove and also mum from mums simply living blog to wonderful blogger's that I enjoy reading so if you have a few minutes to spare pop over and say hello.

Right on to today's questions, you can still join in at any point or start at the beginning which was yesterday.

6) Tell me about the most successful plants you have grown

7) Tell me one of your funniest gardening memories

8) What would be in your top 10 list of favourite plants and why? 

9) Tell me about your favourite garden that you have seen or visited

10) Who has most influenced you interest in gardens and gardening?

hmm some tricky long ones there! Right here goes my answers

6) It would have to be courgettes, I always seem to grow way to many and they are always successful even when I plant them in grow bags.

7) I would have to say when I first got the chickens and I looked out of the window and they had all escaped and not being used to handling or catching them must of seemed hilarious to any onlookers 

8) Oh this is a hard one, well my favourite flowers are lilies, roses and sweet peas. I love these flowers for their lovely scent so they will be up there.  The first new potatoes lot of freshly dug new potatoes of the year as they taste the best, and also carrots fresh from the ground for their fantastic aroma and flavour. 
(I know it's not 10 but these are my top ones)

9) This is something I have not really done as it is not Jays idea of having fun so I will have to leave this one to you

10) It would have to be my grand farther's and my dad, as I have always loved gardening and had a window box, grow bags or flower beds in our gardens.

So there you go that's my bit done now go get your cogs turning. 
Until next time x

Digging up memories - a little quest

Good morning all and what a week we have had with the weather! My fence is looking in a rather sorry state so that is another job on the todo list!

On Saturday we took time out and had a few hours in a local town called Bury St Edmunds, it's a lovely town to shop in as there are lots of little independent shops, which you can spend ages browsing in. 

On the way back, Jay gave me a little bag, he had bought me a present. I know he is lovely! In this little bag was a flower printed tape measure a matching torch and this book. 

Now the idea of this little book is really a neat idea and I love it!

Even though I love this idea and can't wait to get it filled I do however have a little problem. The only person that I could give this too is my dad and I know that he will not want to fill it all in but hopefully will do a little bit. 

So this brings me to my little quest and it involves all of you out there that find a few minutes of your time to read my ramblings to help me. 

What I plan to do over the next few weeks is post 5 questions from the book and I would be very grateful if you could post your answers to the questions in the comments box and then I can transfer them into the book adding the date and your name in the book with your answers. 

You don't have to answer every question but if you do just the one it would mean so much. You all have so much knowledge and different ideas on gardening that it would be nice to have a collection of them. 

Right lets start as we mean to go on, here is the first 5 questions, your answers can be as long or short as you so wish as every little bit helps.

1) What are your earliest memories of your time in the garden?

2) What plants evoke memories of your childhood?

3) Where does your interest in gardens and gardening stem from?

4) What were the first plants you remember growing?

5) How did you learn about gardening?

So that is the first set of questions, I do hope some of you will join in, and following is my answers to the questions above, I promise to keep it brief!

1) In my grandparents garden we were free to run around and play through the fruit trees and bushes and also with pip the dog and the chickens. And our own garden had a big hill in the middle which we learnt to ride our bikes down but ended up crashing into the shed as we forgot to pull the brakes.

2) Gooseberries in my grandparents garden and Hydrangeas as our neighbour had one in her front garden and I always wanted to go and pick the flowers

3) Both of my grandfathers grew vegetables. One was very relaxed about his garden and would let us help and join in and the other was very rigid and we could only look, but he would pull a fresh carrot from the ground or pluck a ripe tomato for me to eat which is a taste that can never be forgotten.

4) The first thing I grew were radishes, my father and rigid granddad had turned our garden in to one big vegetable garden and me and my brother were given a small area to grow things in. My brother decided to grow the budgie seed! 

5) I learnt about gardening through my other grandfather, in the summer we would be weeding, cutting hedges, hoeing and even cut the grass with a Ransomes push mower. He taught us how to use numerous garden tools and how to plant seeds, pruning the fruit trees and bushes whilst talking and explaining to us the whole time as we were full of questions. Any food we harvested would be taken into the kitchen and we would help grandma prepare them for Sunday lunch. 

I hope you enjoyed today's post and I will leave you with this quote

"No two gardens are the same. No two days are the same in one garden" 
Hugh Johnson

Until next time x